In traditional network or e-service agent-server management environments, data collected and events received by the agent are sent back to a single management station server before they can be displayed and accessed by operators. This single management station server can effectively manage only a limited number of nodes on the network. The agents act like slaves of the server, and cannot be accessed or viewed directly by other existing applications or by users. In addition, agents and the management station server must reside on the same side of a firewall. In addition, the number of managed devices and/or applications that the single management station server can handle is finite.